Twin Peaks Mall owner NewMark Merrill Mountain States has purchased Dillard's, clearing the way for an $80 million redevelopment to begin.

"We exchanged Valentines," joked Allen Ginsborg, managing director and principal of NMMS. "We gave them $5 million, they gave us a key."

The mall's demolition is expected to start this summer. The exact date will depend on how quickly the remaining paperwork goes through Longmont's planning process, including a revised site plan, platting and the final infrastructure document, all updated to reflect NewMark's ownership of Dillard's.

NewMark expects to open Village at the Peaks by the fall of 2015. A redevelopment agreement with the city requires the mall to be at least 85 percent complete by the end of 2015.

Longmont will put $27.5 million into the project, to be repaid out of the additional property and sales taxes generated by the new mall, and by a levy the mall will place on itself.

According to Ginsborg, roughly 65 percent of the renovated mall has been leased out. About half of that is from three large leases: Whole Foods, Sam's Club and the Regal Cinemas movie theater.

NewMark Merrill Mountain States, which purchased the mall in February 2012, had hoped to begin demolition and construction last fall, so that most of the new Village at the Peaks would be open for the 2014 holiday season.

But negotiations bogged down with Dillard's over its Twin Peaks store, the one piece of the mall NewMark Merrill did not own.

Under its contract with the mall, Dillard's could veto any proposed changes to Twin Peaks. With the store and the mall at an impasse in early 2013, the Longmont Urban Renewal Authority filed to condemn the property, in hopes of being able to claim the title and keep things moving.

A preliminary ruling by a court-appointed panel set the value of Dillard's at $6.3 million, well over the $3 million that LURA had hoped to see. A jury trial that would have locked in a value was pre-empted, after LURA and NewMark Merrill reached an agreement with Dillard's to buy the store for $5 million — the amount that Dillard's had asked for before negotiations broke off.

LURA also agreed to pay $500,000 of Dillard's legal expenses. The $5.5 million was placed in escrow until Valentine's Day, when Dillard's was allowed to claim the money.

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